We’ve all filled in a survey in the past whether it be giving feedback on a recent purchase, telling a restaurant how their service was or what your thoughts were about an elearning course within a Learning Management System.
And we have all most probably seen surveys where there were elements of the survey that we didn’t like!
If you gather feedback relating to the online training you provide to your learners, here are some things to avoid when crafting your learning survey:
- LONG SURVEYS
- Keep your survey short – a maximum of 8-10 minutes is optimum for a survey. Learners also have their jobs to get on with so time is critical. People will want to complete your surveys so try not to turn them away with overly long timescales.
- QUESTIONS THAT DO NOT MAKE SENSE
- Make your questions clear and concise – try to keep your questions to a maximum of 10 words and use “layman’s terms” instead of technical jargon or abbreviations. If your learners cannot understand the question, they will drop out of the survey altogether.
- OPEN ENDED QUESTIONS
- Use closed ended questions whenever possible – a closed ended question will result in a specific answer (Yes/No, True/False, rating, multiple choice) as opposed to allowing a learner to provide their own written response. This will make answering the questions a lot easier and also provide better feedback for your analysis.
- DIFFICULT CHOICES FOR PROVIDING ANSWERS
- When using rating scales, use an odd number – rating scales are a great way to gain a learner’s feedback on a subject. Using an odd number of answers will allow the learner to give either a positive, negative or impartial response, and it will make your analysis more meaningful too.
So keep these tips in mind when writing your next learning survey. Learners will want to give you their feedback as long as you provide an engaging survey, respect their time and make questions and answers clear and concise.
One response
Fascinating tips!